


Backstory

by bitogoth



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-02-21 19:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2479607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitogoth/pseuds/bitogoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some backstory snippets for my Something Different, Something New series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Alex was in over her head, and she knew it. But it had been like that since day one, so she really should be used to it by now. Shouldn't she?

***

Alex wasn't sure why Nat had decided to adopt her, but that seemed to be what had happened. Then again, at any given point in time no one could say for certain what Natasha Romanov was thinking, and Nat went to extreme ends to keep it that way, so maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise, after all.

The fact that Alex wasn't SHIELD made it even more perplexing. She was a CIA analyst on loan to the NSA for a cross-departmental problem. She also had no idea what Nat was doing at headquarters and was pretty sure that no one who expected to know that sort of thing was aware of the fact. And if the section head Alex was temporarily working under hadn't been such a snobby jerk about her recent paper on AI-assisted cryptograpic advances she might have reported it.

Alex had no regrets.

So that was how she found herself sitting in a slightly seedy bar in Maryland with Natasha Romanov, trying not to snort cider out her nose as Nat made pithy comments about everyone in the bar.

***

Alex's relationship with Nat (she hesitated to call it friendship outright, but it kind of felt that way) generally entailed radio silence for month or so, and then a text or call asking to meet up.

Alex always said yes.

They went to cafes. Or to open-air concerts. Or shoe-shopping.

Nat almost never talked about her work, and when she did it was only in oblique references. But that was okay. Alex figured that the less she knew the better, but she also had the sense that Nat occasionally needed to get away from things, and as someone else with high clearance and little freedom Alex appreciated having some "girl-time".

Of course, she never called it that to Nat.

Besides, Alex's job had fewer embassy dinners and explosions, so what little Nat chose to share Alex soaked up like a sponge; a little vicarious living never hurt.

When the project in D.C. wrapped up and Alex was contracted out to the FBI office in New York she didn't think much of it. She let Nat know that she was being relocated, and a couple weeks later her phone rang as usual and they went to the Met.

Alex knew better to ask questions.

***

It was Nat who introduced Alex to Clint, of course, although "introduced" might give the wrong impression about how things happened.

Alex and Nat were sitting in a Starbucks after a round of window-shopping when a male voice said, right in Alex's ear, "Well, it's about time."

Nat rolled her eyes in the extremely eloquent way that only she had.

"Clint." It somehow managed to be an introduction, a warning, and a resigned commentary on life in general, all in one breath.

Clint swung a wooden chair around and straddled it, arms crossed on the back and eyebrows waggling at the two women. He was clearly enjoying himself.

"So here's the little gal-pal you've been hiding away from us. Trying to make Hill jealous?"

Nat breathed the faintest sigh and gave in to the inevitable. "Clint, this is Alex, Alexa Harrow. Alex, this is Clint."

"What, I don't get a formal introduction?" Clint pressed a hand to chest, miming mortal affront with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Oh, I know who you are," Alex replied loftily. "I've heard _stories_."

"Oh, really?!" Clint looked delighted. Nat looked resigned. "Don't encourage him."

The day ended in a pub with Clint and Alex swapping movie quotes and Nat hiding a smile behind her bottle of beer.

***

Then the Chitauri happened.

Nat had been offline longer than usual, and Alex was a little worried, but not very. She shrugged it off as the perils of being social with a super-spy and tried to imagine what incredible stories Nat wouldn't tell her when she finally called.

And then a wormhole opened over Stark tower and all hell broke loose.

Alex was back with the CIA but still in New York. She was underground in a heavily-fortified government building and was about as safe as she could be, huddled under a desk and watching as much footage as she could get.

Watching her friend fight aliens.

Clint was there, of course, and Alex had never seen him in action, what he could do with a bow. And Tony Stark was there in the Iron Man armor, and... was that, Captain America? And a huge blonde with a hammer who Alex knew to be Thor, (and couldn't say anything about, since no one outside of SHIELD was supposed to know about New Mexico at all). And the Hulk. And the Hulk was *helping* them.

At that point Alex broke out her emergency flask and she was willing to bet that she wasn't the only one.

Things were pretty insane for a while after that, and Alex wasn't surprised when she didn't hear from Nat. A giant worm-thing had fallen on her apartment building, so like many New Yorkers Alex was scrambling to find temporary housing and filing insurance claims and wasn't _that_ a nightmare-and-a-half. Half the time she slept in her office and showered at the gym until two other analysts in her department put their heads together and she moved onto their couch.

Time passed and a delegation of Asgardians arrived to help with the cleanup. Alex was working too many hours and drinking too much tea.

She had to call her sister every two days just to check in or else her family was going to go insane with worry.

***

It was late on a Thursday and Alex was glued to her desk as usual, tired and stressed and doing the work of three analysts when a nondescript man in a nice suit walked up to her desk and introduced himself as Special Agent Coulson of SHIELD.


	2. On Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More notes and snippets for my series Something Different, Something New. I have more to add to this list, but some are spoilers so I'll update as I go along.

Considering this is supposed to be a Bruce/Alex story, people talk to/about Natasha a lot. This is my attempt to be consistent. Of course, JARVIS calls everyone by their full titles, except for Tony who will always be "Sir".

Natasha Romanov:

Maria - Natasha (in public), Tash (in private), Agent (when she's pissed)  
Clint - Tasha, Tash (Note: only Clint and Maria ever call her Tash)  
Steve - Natasha, Widow (while in the field)  
Alexa - Nat almost always, sometimes Natasha when speaking with someone who doesn't know Nat  
Pepper - Natasha (always fondly and with respect)  
Darcy - Sneaky Lady, Spy-Sis, Keeper-of-the-Shoes (they wear the same size and Nat lends non-lethal heels for special occasions), Natasha (when she's whining)  
Tony - Spy Twin One, Red-Headed Death Trap, Scary Assassin, The Evil One, "Her", etc. Natasha (only when he's trying to talk himself out of trouble)  
Sam - Natasha, Nat (he might have picked this up from Alex)  
Thor - Lady Natasha (he's working on just calling her Natasha, but lapses often), Shield-Sister  
Phil and Jane only ever call her Natasha

Maria Hill:

Usually Maria/casual Hill/formal. Tony calls her "Director" consistently in the snidest voice possible. Natasha has a pet name for her but no one else knows that (yet). Alex calls her Director respectfully.

Alexa Harrow:

Everyone calls her Alex at her request, except Hill, who refers to her as "Harrow" (approving) or "Agent" (disapproving).  
Hulk - Lex, Lexy, Alexa  
Tony - Harrow, Blonde hellion, Baby-spy  
TBA - Blondie (spoiler alert!)


	3. Timeline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Approximate order of events leading up to Something Different, Something New, mostly for my own reference. I will add more as I fill in Alex's assignments and training.

I cannot take credit for the canon side of this amazing timeline- check it out at <http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/> (my personal timeline is not quite Agents of SHIELD compliant)

2005

4/16 - Dr. Bruce Banner is exposed to gamma radiation in attempt to duplicate the serum used to create Captain America. The Hulk is released. After extensive travel (Canada, Greenland, Rome) Bruce lays low in Rio until 2011.

2010

2/27 - Alex on temporary assignment with NSA. Encounters Natasha Romanov who is there on a mission. They become friends.

5/18 - Tony Stark captured in Afghanistan by Ten Rings

8/18 - Tony escapes in the Mark I

8/24 - Iron Monger battle, Obie is killed

2011

4/22 - Stark World Expo

4/24 - Tony makes Pepper CEO

5/29 - Rhodey acquires Iron Patriot suit

5/31 - Expo fight; Jane, Erik and Darcy meet Thor

6/2 - Battle of Puente Antiguo/Battle at Culver University

6/4 - Sterns' reversal of the Hulk, but no cure. Abomination Duel in Harlem.

2012

4/14 - Captain America found

4/17 - Steve Rogers wakes up

5/1 - Loki steals the Tesseract, Clint Barton and Erik Selvig are compromised

5/2 - Natasha recruits Bruce in Kolkata. Fury recruits Steve. Tony is recruited by Phil.

5/3 - Loki captured, Thor arrives.

5/4 - Battle of New York

5/5 - Jane & Darcy arrive in NYC having missed Thor. Tony starts repairing the Tower and uses the opportunity to create living space for all the Avengers, as well as building the Iron Legion.

5/9 - Phil Coulson is revived.

12/22 - Attack in Malibu by Mandarin (Aldrich Killian)

12/24 - Pepper kidnapped/Extremis

12/27 - Pepper stabilized, Tony no longer needs arc reactor in his chest but the housing unit remains.

2013

11/4 - Battle of Greenwich

2014

4/1 - Fury "dies"

4/3 - Sam is recruited

4/4 - Triskelion falls; assassination attempt on Alex, nine other top cryptographers and AI specialists killed, two others survive, one disappears

4/6 - Alex is officially recruited into SHIELD by Phil.

4/7 - Alex drinks with Nat, Clint and Coulson.

4/8 - Alex meets the Avengers.

4/15-20 - Jane and Alex in Geneva

May - Alex settles in, Hong Kong with Pepper


	4. What's in Alex's Bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few months as a SHIELD Agent assigned to the Avengers, some weird things have ended up in Alex's bag.

  * One grey umbrella with acid holes. Needs to be replaced.
  * One steel water bottle, currently holding a sample of said acid. Needs to be delivered to the SHIELD science team for testing.
  * One Beretta 92fs with two full clips, not SHIELD standard.
  * One Cryo quick-release blade.
  * One Gerber multitool, with her initials scratched on it since Sam keeps borrowing it to tweak his wings and forgets to return it. (Tony has his own multitool that he designed himself. Pepper is trying to convince him to market them.)
  * One titanium spork.
  * Three protein bars, mostly for Bruce after a Hulk episode.
  * One grey men's t-shirt, see above.
  * One lipstick which is really a pepper spray atomizer, gift from Natasha, color cherry red.
  * One write-in-the-rain note pad and waterproof pen.
  * One Something. Darcy had it in her pocket and it needs to go back to Jane. It might be part of a spectrometer, but with the duck tape it's hard to tell.
  * One StarkPhone, with the Avengers, SHIELD, and JARVIS on speed-dial.
  * One spare string for Clint's bow, because he always forgets to restock his tool belt when one breaks. ( _TWICE_ now)
  * One SHIELD-issue ID in standard black leather case.
  * One Stark-modified ear comm (much to Hill's annoyance).
  * One medium first-aid kit in a zip case, stuffed with extras. After the Beretta this is the heaviest thing in her bag.
  * One 9mm silver bullet. Don't ask.
  * One talisman on a leather necklace. _Really_ don't ask.
  * One key ring with a high-pitched emergency whistle and a Res-Q-Me on a carabiner clip.
  * One hairbrush with several hair elastics wrapped around the handle. A small Altoids tin hold extra hairpins.
  * One monocular, 8x22,
  * One small bottle of hand sanitizer, because fighting crime is incredibly gross at times.
  * One lighter, because you never know when you might need to set something on fire.
  * One paracord bracelet that unravels to 10'.
  * Ten plastic zip-ties for securing wrists (because there just never seems to be enough of the darn things).
  * One small roll of duct tape, frequently used in conjunction with the zip-ties.
  * Two epi-pens, because ever since the poison gas situation it was clear that just one wasn't enough.
  * Extra batteries for Clint's hearing aids, so he can't use that as an excuse for not paying attention.
  * Two extra Widow's Bites is a small insulated bag.
  * Half-a-dozen small tracking devices, to be used as needed.
  * A packet of tissues, for sniffles.
  * One picture of her nieces, with Dad dressed as Santa.
  * One plastic shopping bag for carrying things she really doesn't want to put in her bag (most recently, parts of zombie tentacle that Tony wanted to examine back at the lab. She replaced the bag after that. It smelled.)




End file.
